Brian Lim preferred dancing in the dark. That’s how he is -- modest, soft-spoken, definitely not showy. But at an electronic dance music (EDM) club six years ago, his girlfriend nudged him to don a pair of gloves with fingertips covered in blinking LED lights. It’s the sole tool required for “gloving,” a dance in which lit-up hands create light-streaked spectacles for (possibly but not exclusively intoxicated) onlookers. “I was able to captivate a small crowd around me,” Lim says. “It was a feeling I’d never had before.”

It was also the inspiration for what would become Emazing Group, Lim’s fast-growing empire of rave accessories. It did $7 million in sales in 2014 and $12 million last year, and is on track for $18 million this year. But his company started much more modestly, with a hunch: This subculture had a popular product but no go-to brand. [read more]